Lately

Lately we've been: 

riding bikes

playing on the patio

practicing our handwriting

cutting flowers from the patio

browsing for books at the library - I tried to get the kids interested in this one about the Dewey Decimal System - no dice...

finishing up tennis lessons

getting haircuts

make that somebody's first haircut!

making popsicles with watermelon, strawberry, and mint from our CSA box

paid a visit to the doctor to look at a couple of sore throats

went to the zoo with Grandpa

Seany had his end-of-year party and I got to help

found a nice koi pond at our local garden center

explored the growhouses at the garden center - couldn't get these guys to leave!

celebrated Sean completing his sticker chart at school by visiting our local ice cream shop

Beauty tips & teeth time sweeties

"The hippo is eating my hair. Then it throws up my hair and that's how my hair is so straight and smooth!"

"Clare, you're a good little brusher, little sister.  I love you."  

"You're a good big tooth brusher too, big brudder.  I love you too, Seany!!!"

This week

This past week, just like any other week, has gone by in a blur!  This weekend, Sean had basketball and the kids both had swimming lessons.  Clare is really comfortable in the water and Sean can go underwater all by himself!

We stopped at Wawa and saw what is probably the last pumpkin spice flavored K-cups we'll see until August, I guess :-)

We took a break from Legos and we built wooden blocks castles:

Back to the Legos - Sean built a defensive line of ships:

Sean got to bring home the class pet, a stuffed lamb named Lollipop:

Clare was really happy that Lollipop came home.  She helped changed Lollipop's clothes and had tea parties with the lamb.  

Crayons

Two kids and two very different pronunciations of the word "crayon"...

Sean says "craylon"

and Clare says "crown"

And We're Baaack

While I get some catch-up posts together, here are a few nuggets from Sean's day today:

- Sean had Library class today and he was allowed to pick out a book and borrow it for one week! He picked out a book from the "scary Halloween section" - it's about a family of skeletons who go on vacation together.

- Sean's class was shown where the school nurse's office was today.

- Sean told me that his teacher cracked open a real coconut today for "science time."  Then they all drank the coconut water and the teacher made coconut ice cream from the "white stuff" but since Sean doesn't like coconut ice cream, she brought "chocolate minto" (chocolate chip mint) ice cream for Sean to eat.

- Sean had a little scratch underneath his nose and when I asked him what happened, he called it his "hot spot." He got the hot spot when he went to visit the "black smither" at school.  The black smither was making a horseshoe and he said that Sean could touch the horseshoe when it cooled, but Sean couldn't wait and he touched the horseshoe while it was hot then he touched the hot spot under his nose.

- Sean said that a police officer comes to his school everyday to each lunch at the cafeteria.  Then the police officer goes back to work at the Police Station at Town Hall near the Library.

- When I asked Sean if he could call his teacher to ask for more details about all the stories he told me that I couldn't call her because she told the class that parents weren't allowed to call her. How convenient :-)

Here's our storyteller boarding the bus for school!

Grocery Shopping

How do we keep the peace on a trip to Shoprite?  Bagels and hugs, of course! And You Tube videos from the movie Frozen when the bagels are eaten and the hugs get too rough :-)

More randomness

This week, the kids and I went to the library together for the first time this year - we discovered two new fishies in the fish tank and picked up a couple of Star Wars books for Sean :-)

We also spent a long time studying the United States map rug:

Clare decided soup is her new favorite food. And all soups are called "Bean Soup"

It was cold... so cold for so many days. And then this weekend was warm - warm enough to play outside without multiple layers of clothing on! 

I made a penguin-shaped pancake (it was totally by accident - but don't tell the kids)!

 We did science experiments Sunday afternoon - including sparkly champagne glass volcanoes!

The kids teamed up to decorate a heart for a bulletin board at school - buttons and glitter, yeah!

We listened to songs from the movie "Frozen" about half a billion times, we colored and cut paper, we read so many books, and we watched a couple of movies. The kids were very interested in whether the groundhog saw his shadow or not this morning. They cheered when we read that Punxsutawney Phil did indeed see his shadow and we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Looks like we'll get some more of that winter tomorrow - another snowstorm is predicted!